The top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee has accused the panel’s Republican chairman Rep Michael Guest of having “betrayed the process” after a meeting resulted in no decision on whether to release the report into former Florida Congressman and Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz.
Rep Susan Wild, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said on Wednesday afternoon: “We had agreed that we were not going to discuss what had transpired at the meeting … The chairman has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee.”
The House Ethics Committee was unable to reach an agreement on releasing its report into Gaetz’s alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use during its Wednesday meeting.
Both Democratic and Republican Senators have asked to see the report as part of their vetting of Gaetz to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
But House Republicans haven’t been eager to share the conclusions of the report into the yearslong investigation.
After the meeting on Wednesday, which lasted hours, Guest, a Mississippi Republican, said, “There was no agreement by the committee to release the report.”
Wild said Guest “implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report ... To the extent that that suggests that the committee was in agreement, or that we had a consensus on that — that is inaccurate.”
“I will say that a vote was taken,” she added. “As many of you know, this committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, five Dems, five Republicans, which means that in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side, which happens a lot, by the way, and we often vote unanimously.”
“That did not happen in today's vote, and I do not want the American public, or anyone else to think that Mr. Guest’s characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had unanimity or consensus on this issue not to release the report,” Wild said.
“There was no consensus on this issue. We did agree that we would reconvene as a committee on December 5 to further consider this matter,” she added.
Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson pushed for the committee not to release the report, claiming that it would be a “breach of protocol” to release a report on a member who has left the chamber.
Gaetz quickly resigned from Congress after he was nominated to be attorney general by President-elect Donald Trump. The 42-year-old’s resignation came just days before a planned meeting of the Ethics panel, where they were set to vote on the report.
Some Republicans in the Senate, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, have indicated that the Judiciary Committee in the upper chamber could subpoena the House panel if they’re unwilling to hand over the report.
Gaetz spent Wednesday on Capitol Hill with Vice President-elect and Ohio Senator JD Vance meeting with other Republicans in the Senate whose support he needs to be confirmed to lead the Department of Justice.
